1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the construction of shirt plackets and automatic finish stitching and boxing of the same onto a shirt. More particularly, the invention relates to the construction of semi-finished shirt plackets through a convenient and efficient combination of devices and steps and to the finish stitching and boxing of an unfinished shirt having the placket affixed thereto to produce a more complete sport shirt.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
The relevant art is exemplified by: Bennison et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,517,630 entitled "STITCHING OF MATERIALS"; Manabe et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,545 entitled "AUTOMATIC SEWING MACHINES"; Kienel U.S. Pat. No. 4,132,183 entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEAMING HOSIERY BLANKS"; Vartoukian U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,673 entitled "MATERIAL FEED MECHANISM FOR SEWING MACHINES"; Smith et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,324,004 entitled "METHOD FOR MAKING FUSED COLLARS AND PRODUCT RESULTING THEREFROM"; Johnson et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,406,234 entitled "POSITIONING APPARATUS"; Sadeh U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,276 entitled "POCKET SETTER UNIT AND AUTOMATIC SEWING MACHINE INCLUDING SAME"; Sadeh U.S. Pat. No. 4,498,404 entitled "AUTOMATIC SEWING APPARATUS"; Bowditch U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,269 entitled "AUTOMATED ASSEMBLY SYSTEM FOR SEAMED ARTICLES"; Franke, Sr. U.S. Pat. No. 4,517,907 entitled "DRIVEN WORK FOLDER"; and Bray U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,872 entitled "AUTOMATIC LABEL EMPLACER AND DISPENSER FOR SEWING MACHINES".
The present invention includes features which are not taught or suggested by the relevant art. These features provide a unified system for preparing a placket product, fastening it to an unfinished shirt body, and finishing the shirt with an automatic finish stitcher and boxer apparatus which finish stitches the placket product to the shirt body with an appropriate stitch pattern, such as a reversed "L"-shaped box pattern which is conventionally used in the art.